After a summer of negotiations, the Republican-controlled state Senate has reached agreement on a number of issues, the Times-Tribune of Scranton reports this morning. And it looks like we can expect a renewed push to bring Penn State and other-state related universities under the umbrella of the law.

"At the top of concerns is treatment of the state-relateds," Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, told the newspaper. In case you've forgotten, Penn State, Temple and Lincoln universities, as well as the University of Pittsburgh, are currently exempted from the law. The Sandusky sex abuse scandal at Penn State led to calls to erase that exemption.

The rest of today's news starts now.

Gov. Tom Corbett Says ...
... he wouldn't read too much into a split-decision over the state's Voter ID law, WITF-FM in Harrisburg reports. The high court, divided 3-3, among Republicans and Democrats, heard oral arguments last week in Philadelphia.
“I think the justices can have differences of opinion and it comes from a philosophy of where they come from," Corbett said last week during an appearance in Lebanon County.
For those of you playing along at home, a 3-3 decision by the high court would uphold a lower court ruling that denied a request to keep the law from going into full effect with the Nov. 6 general election.

Call It "The Congress Effect."
Pennsylvania voters give statewide schools a low "C" grade, but rate their local schools slightly higher, a new Inky poll reveals.
While 70 percent of the 600 likely voters in the poll were also optimistic that public schools in the state could be improved, a clear majority (54 percent) expressed reservations that opening more charter schools would improve urban education. And 56 percent opposed giving students in low-performing schools a taxpayer-funded voucher to attend private and parochial schools, the newspaper found.Gov. Tom Corbett is expected to make approval of his stalled charter school reforms the focus of this fall's legislative session.

Don't Expect The Corbett Administration ...
... to take the White House up on an offered waiver on welfare-to-work requirements. The Republican administration thinks the plan would "turn back the clock on welfare reform," our friends at Capitolwire report this morning.
In a letter sent to President Barack Obama, the Front Office said they'd concluded that waiver was primarily intended to allow states to increase their work participation rates without getting more recipients into actual jobs, Capitolwire reported.

Pennsylvania Libertarians ...
... have moved one step closer to getting onto the statewide presidential ballot now that
a state appellate judge has ruled that 9,000 contested signatures were valid, the PAIndependent reports.
The ruling by the Commonwealth Court last week puts the minor party about 600 signatures shy of the 20,600 they need to get onto the ballot, the online news org reports.

The Woman Behind ...
... the challenge to Pennsylvania's legislative maps wasn't blase about her second trip to the state Supreme Court last week.
"It's still a significant step to participate in our great checks-and-balances system," Amanda Holt of Lehigh County told your humble blogger in an interview published Sunday.
"I don't know that I was nervous the first time, per se," she continued. "I felt like we had pretty strong evidence and I was confident in the ability of the lawyers to present that in a clear way before the justices. So as we go to do this again, I once again feel we have strong evidence and that they will do a good job in presenting that in a clear way to the justices."

What Goes On.
The House Health Committee holds a 1 p.m. public hearing on legislation concerning "sterilization procedures" for healthcare workers. We're pretty sure this means washing their hands and stuff and isn't some kind of genetic engineering effort. The meeting takes place in Room G50 of the Irvis Office Building.

You Say It's Your Birthday Dept.
Best wishes go out this morning to Aubrey Montgomery of the state Democratic Party; Sean P. McAleer of the PA Catholic Conference and reader Peggy Lucas of Middletown, Pa.

On The Capitol Ideas iPod This Morning.
Here's an old favorite by indie rock (would-be) legends The Loft. It's "Up the Hill and Down the Slope." If you're a fan of first-era Creation Records artists from the UK, this will be right up your street.